Identification

The most valuable recent flora or identification guide for Europe is that of Krammer and Lange-Bertalot (1986-1991). This flora can be used for the identification of many of the species occurring in India and for the confirmation of species identifications by other authors. Other taxonomic guides that may be consulted include Gandhi (1998), Sarode and Kamat (1984), Schoeman (1973), Schoeman and Archibald (1976-1980), Archibald (1983), Gasse (1986), Round et al., (1990), Hartley (1996), Prygiel and Coste (2000), Lange-Bertalot (2001), Krammer (2002), and Taylor et al., (2007).

Diatom taxonomy has recently undergone many changes and is currently in a state of flux. This is mainly due to the splitting of large genera such as Navicula and Nitzschia. There is now consensus amongst diatom taxonomists that the diatom genus Navicula is restricted to the section Lineolatae (Lange-Bertalot, 2001). This has led to the creation of new genera by encapsulating species that used to belong to the genus Navicula. Examples of these new genera are Luticola (Mann, in Round et al., 1990), Fallacia (Sickle and Mann, in Round et al., 1990) and Microcostatus (Johansen and Sray, 1998). For revised nomenclature, works such as Lange-Bertalot (2001), Krammer (2002) and Kellogg and Kellogg (2002) or resources such as AlgaeBase (http://www.algaebase.org) can also be consulted.